


Conversations in Detention

by maybeillwriteit



Series: Conversations in Detention [1]
Category: Tangled (2010)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, F/M, High School
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-21
Updated: 2020-06-21
Packaged: 2021-03-03 23:00:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,291
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24823486
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/maybeillwriteit/pseuds/maybeillwriteit
Summary: After agreeing to help make the sets for the school play, Rapunzel stays late one day after school to get some work done. She doesn't know what to expect when the mysterious new kid swans in, but she starts to enjoy his company.
Relationships: Eugene Fitzherbert | Flynn Rider/Rapunzel
Series: Conversations in Detention [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1795510
Comments: 3
Kudos: 9





	Conversations in Detention

**Author's Note:**

> This is just Rapunzel and Flynn's part of the story for the #schoolofdisney tag on tiktok!

Rapunzel’s phone buzzed as she left her last class of the day.

_You’ve got a shift at the hospital this weekend while I’m on ER duty. Late night tonight so see you tomorrow. Make good choices. Mom x_

She groaned, stuffing her phone back in her pocket and unlocking her locker. Spending her weekend with her mother criticising her and her powers wasn’t exactly something she was looking forward to. She couldn’t stop thinking about the last time she helped out in the ER; there had been enough incoming traumas to fill an episode of a medical drama and she had spent most of it rocking back and forth in a corner of a storage room trying not to cry or scream because she got blood in her hair. It really hadn’t gone down well when her mother found her and it made their family dinner that evening very uncomfortable. Shaking her head to try and dispel the thoughts, she exchanged the books in her bag for paint pots from her locker and shoved one paint brush in her hair and one in the pocket of her dungarees. She grabbed the screwdriver too; she’d found a mysteriously broken set piece that morning and had only managed a quick fix, so she needed to fix it properly before Boo found it. Gathering more pots in her arms and turning on her heel, she headed towards the auditorium, happy to be spending her evening quietly painting set pieces rather than hanging around waiting for her parents to come home and interrogate her about going to medical school. Boo had asked her to try and get as many set pieces done ready for when rehearsals started soon and she didn’t mind working late, sitting alone in the auditorium made a nice change for sitting alone in her room at home.

The door to the auditorium was open and she walked in to see someone standing on the stage amongst the set pieces. She groaned, thinking she’d forgotten that the room had been booked for something. As she walked closer to the stage, the figure became clearer in the darkness, but she didn’t recognise him. She frowned, trying to decide if she’d seen him around and flicking more lights on with her elbow as she passed the switches. He was a full head taller than her, with dark brooding eyes and tousled hair. _He looks like a ‘bad boy’ stereotype from every high school movie_ , Rapunzel thought, _he could at least help with the paints instead of staring at me._ He was leaning on one of her set pieces like he was bored.

Raps blinked at him, “If you lean on that, it’ll fall over.”

“You must be Rapunzel, sweetheart.” he straightened up and held his hands up in surrender.

She dropped a paint pot in surprise at his tone and raised her eyebrow, “Do you really address someone you’ve just met as _sweetheart_? But yes I am, who are you?”

“Flynn Rider,” he laughed and stuck his hand out, smiling in a way that was probably supposed to be charming.

She put the other paint pots down and shook his hand, “And what are you doing lurking around my sets, Flynn Rider?”

“Detention, apparently painting sets is the appropriate punishment for a scoundrel like me.”

_Scoundrel… Since when do people talk like this?_

“I have a note from Madame Odie, she said you’d be okay with it.”

He held out a piece of paper and Raps took it. It was legit, signed and everything, so she smiled. _I could use the extra help_ , she thought.

“Might as well make yourself useful then,” she rifled through the paints at her feet and shoved a pot and brush into his arms, shooing him towards a set piece. “I need that section of that piece painted blue please.”

She picked up a pot of bright yellow paint and plucked a brush from her hair, starting to paint. They were quiet for a while and Rapunzel was able to lose herself in the calming strokes of her brush. She didn’t have to think about anything other than the paint, not her parents, not the hospital, not her powers that needed training, not the pile of college prospectuses that her mother kept shoving across the table at her. She smiled to herself, feeling better than she had done all week, anxiety slipping away.

“So,” his voice startled her and she managed to flick yellow paint onto her nose. She peered round the set piece as he smiled at her and continued, “Why are you here so late anyway?”

“I don’t have anything better to do so I might as well help out. Boo needs as many pieces ready for next week as possible.”

“From what I’ve heard, the play sounds like a modern classic in the making.”

“Well I think it’s fun.”

“Oh I don’t doubt that it’s fun.”

Raps smiled and turned away, carrying on splashing yellow paint onto the set, and all over herself.

“Are you in the play?” he said.

She snorted, “Absolutely not, I just make the sets.”

“Why not?”

“I haven’t been in a play since I was a kid and nearly fainted. And I don’t have the time even if I wanted to,” she peered around the set piece again, “Guessing you’re not in it either?”

“I could be the lead for all you know!”

She snorted, “Sure thing, that’s believable!”

“Maybe I’ll audition just to prove my point,” he winked and turned back to the blue paint. She watched him for a moment before ducking back behind her piece and carrying on splashing yellow paint onto it. For someone she hardly knew, he seemed perfectly pleasant, even if he was in detention.

After a few minutes, she couldn’t resist asking, “Why did you get detention?”

“I may have been hiding out in here and something, erm, might have gotten broken in the process.” 

Rapunzel whipped around the piece she was painting to glare at him, folding her arms and dripping more yellow paint on her shoes.

“So you’re the reason my favourite set piece no longer stands up straight!”

“I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to break it, it just sort of happened when I knocked it over…”

“How did you knock it over?”

“Odie made me jump and I… I fell on it okay!”

“I wondered how it had been broken overnight! It’s a good job I found it and I managed to do a quick fix before Boo found out or she would have had someone’s head for it.”

“For someone so small, she’s quite the spitfire.”

“Hey!” She gestured with her paintbrush, “Someone’s height has nothing to do with their power.” 

“Of course, a five foot three girl like yourself is the most powerful being of all.”

She thought about her meagre healing powers and strained a smile, “Well, maybe not me but other small people are powerful.”

He had a way of looking at her that made her feel like he was reading her thoughts. She blinked and shook her head. She went to turn away but couldn’t help her curiosity.

“Why aren’t you with all the other villains in the detention classroom?” She frowned, thinking about the times she’d walked past that classroom and seen the chaos the villains were causing from right under the teacher’s nose.

“Odie said I should make it up to you. I do feel bad now.” he said, looking her up and down, smiling when he met her eyes again.

“Oh well as long as you’re sorry then it’s fine.” The funny thing was, it sounded sarcastic but she actually meant it. He didn’t seem like a terribly bad person, he hadn’t set a bathroom on fire or hurt anyone, and she was prepared to give him the benefit of the doubt.

“Why were you hiding in here though? You don’t seem like the hiding type.”

“I’ll have you know, I am very shy and innocent!”

She raised her eyebrows at him, “Come on, why were you really hiding in here?”

“Well, y’know the incident yesterday which ended with a certain someone running down the corridor with green hair?”

“Yes…”

“That _may_ have been my fault, just a little bit…”

Her jaw dropped, “That was _you_?”

“I’m not proud of it. Well, I am actually, it was an impeccable piece of work.”

Raps laughed. Heroes shouldn’t condone rule breaking or pranks, but she thought they got what they deserved. She fell into comfortable silence with him, but she kept looking up to watch him paint, _how could he make painting one piece a solid colour look so difficult?_ He kept turning to look over his shoulder at her, smirking if he caught her eye.

It was infuriating.

“Can you concentrate on painting that evenly instead of staring at me, please.”

“Sorry, sweetheart, it’s difficult to make this curve even though.”

“Oh for heaven's sake, give it to me!” she said, dumping her own paint brush on the floor and snatching the one from out of his hand. 

He laughed and leaned an elbow on the set again. 

“And if you keep doing that,” she flicked paint in his direction, “you’re going to break another one and you’ll be stuck painting sets with me forever.” 

“Would that really be a bad thing?”

Rapunzel felt her cheeks flush so she didn’t look at him, just carried on painting; but she could feel his eyes on her. They were quiet again while she tried to fix the mess he’d made.

“You’ve got some yellow paint on your nose, y’know.” He reached out and brushed his finger against her face, wiping away the paint. She froze, keeping her eyes on the wood in front of her and trying not to blush ever more.

“There you go, sunshine.” He smiled, taking the paint brush from her and carrying on, watching her out of the corner of his eye for her reaction.

“Sunshine?”

“Yellow paint, it’s like the sun.”

“This is mustard yellow though.”

“The sun is all different kinds of yellow _actually_. So do you want the compliment or not?”

She frowned and ducked back behind the yellow set piece, “Is being compared to the sun a good thing? People go blind from looking at it and it has the ability to burn things and cause fires. Don’t you know the story of Icarus?”

“Who?”

“Greek mythology? Flew too close to the sun and the wax holding his wings together melted and he fell into the sea and died?”

“So the moral of the story is find a different mode of transportation-”

“No,” she rolled her eyes, “the moral is don’t get too close to the sun or it’ll burn you. That and hubris, but that’s a given with mythology.”

“You’re not going to burn me are you, sunshine?”

“I’ll try my very best. But considering I’ve never broken a rule in my life, I am a little offended you think I would be able to. If you want to talk to someone who starts fires, you should probably go and find Hades.”

“But I don’t want to talk to Hades, I like talking to you.”

“You’re definitely doing more talking than painting!” She grinned at him from around the set piece.

“Well when I’m in such lovely company, how can I possibly stay focused?”

“You’re ridiculous, you know that right?”

“You wouldn’t have me any other way, sunshine!”

Two hours passed quickly and Rapunzel found herself enjoying Flynn’s company. He was surprisingly easy to talk to and she found herself relaxing and laughing with him. She didn't notice how late it was getting until door to the auditorium crashed open and Madame Odie strode in.

“Right then, Mr Rider, same time tomorrow. You’ve not quite made up for the breakage yet!” Madame Odie smiled at them.

“Oh really, that’s okay. I can do it myself- ” Rapunzel said.

“Nonsense, you need all the help you can get with all these blasted pieces and he,” she wagged her finger at a smirking Flynn, “needs to actually fix the piece he broke.”

“Of course ma’am.” Flynn saluted and grinned, making the teacher roll her eyes.

“Too right you will, Mr Rider! Now then you two, it’s time to lock up and go home so pack up and off you go.” Madame Odie said over her shoulder as she trotted out of the door and left them alone again.

Rapunzel started stuffing brushes and paints back into her bag, fully aware of Flynn’s eyes on her again.

“You can help instead of staring at me if you like.” She glanced up at him and smiled.

He knelt down and picked up some paints, “I’ve never had this much fun in detention before.”

“Don’t let Odie hear you say that, I don’t think detention is meant to be fun.” She smiled and stood up, hugging the paints close to her so she didn’t drop them. They left the stage and made their way to the door, where Flynn opened the door for her, surprisingly a gentleman. They stood in the corridor for a few moments.

“Guess I’ll see you tomorrow then.”

“Looking forward to more intriguing conversations with you, sweetheart.”

“Does that line actually work?” she snorted.

“Maybe I’m just having an off day.”

“Aww you poor thing!” she laughed, trying not to drop anything this time. 

“But really, you intrigue me. There’s more to you than meets the eye, isn’t there?” Flynn winked and walked away, looking back and smiling as he threw the small can of paint up in the air and catching it.

“Hey! You’ve still got my paint!” she called after him.

“I’ll bring it back tomorrow, sunshine!”


End file.
